The only way of mastering any topic in Organic Chemistry is doing lots of practice problems. And I know, seeing my students, that starting to work on a practice problem may be the hardest part as you don’t know where to start. It is difficult to visualize what where the double bond would be moved if you follow the five curved arrows crammed in one step. Here is the trick:
We are always told to think before doing something. Fair enough. But let me tell you, it is also strangely enough, that in Organic Chemistry, it is often better to draw and then think about what you did (not in the lab though). It is much easier to have a structure in front of you and check for errors and improvements.
Do the first step, take the pencil and you will see that the ball gets rolling.
You have all these Organic Chemistry Practice Problems waiting to be solved!
PCl₅ is one of several reagents we have seen that are used for converting alcohols to alkyl halides: Notice that in the case of chiral secondary alcohols, there is inversion of configuration, which indicates that substitution at the … Read more
In this post, we will identify all the isomers with the molecular formula C₂H4O₂. One strategy to draw all the isomers with a given molecular formula is to calculate the degree of unsaturation so that we know whether the compounds … Read more
Alkyl groups are derivatives of the corresponding alkanes, formed by removing one hydrogen atom. For example, methyl is the alkyl derivative of methane, ethyl is the alkyl derivative of ethane, propyl is derived from propane, hexyl from hexane, and so … Read more
The Gattermann reaction is a method for preparing aromatic aldehydes from activated aromatic compounds using hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and hydrogen chloride (HCl) in the presence of a Lewis acid catalyst such as AlCl3 and ZnCl₂: To understand how … Read more
Alkanes are the first class of organic compounds we learn when starting organic chemistry. They are also the simplest organic molecules because they are only composed of carbon and hydrogen atoms that are connected with single bonds only. Here are … Read more
The Gattermann–Koch reaction is a method for preparing aromatic aldehydes by reacting benzene and its derivatives with carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen chloride (HCl) in the presence of a strong acid and a Lewis acid catalyst such as AlCl₃. … Read more
In today’s post, we will discuss the physical properties of alkanes and cycloalkanes, such as their boiling points, melting points, and solubility in water and organic solvents. So, let’s start with the boiling point of alkanes. Boiling Point and … Read more
Let’s work through a common question: drawing all the isomers of C₄H₁₀O. The first thing you want to do is calculate the degree of unsaturation so that you know whether there are any π bonds or ring systems in these … Read more
In the previous post, we saw that butane has two isomers: n-Butane and isobutane, which have the same chemical formula of C4H10 but a different connectivity of the atoms: A quick reminder that isomers, or more specifically constitutional … Read more
Before drawing all the isomers of butane (C₄H₁₀), let’s quickly recall that isomers are compounds that have the same molecular formula but different connectivity of atoms. In simpler words, the composition is the same, but the atoms are connected in … Read more
